Trick or Treat

Had to show off the Halloween costumes for this year....Velma from Scooby Doo and Indiana Jones.

Boo!

I am sure you cannot tell who's face is who's??!!

Pumkin carving

Halloween is sneaking up on me this year. Abbie reminded us it was time to carve our pumpkin today (thanks again Granddad and Grammie Lorna!)


Two kids equals a two faced jack-o-lantern! Liam declined to do the scooping out part leaving more time for him to do some sketches. I helped Liam draw on his design and he cut it out.


After a quick trip to Grama Cindy and Grampa David's, Abbie cut out her face with a safer pumpkin saw. Pics of the finished dual personality jack on the next post (I was a little too pic happy on this one :)

More food experiments

Today I made chicken bouillabaisse, a new recipe from cooks illustrated. I have not cooked with fennel or saffron before, but now I know I like both of them. Kyle and I enjoyed this dish and Liam liked it a little, Abbie liked the chicken and croutons. I was concerned the anise flavor would be overpowering, but it was subtle an went well with the other flavors (I did leave out the Pernod or Ouzo called for in the recipe. I could only find Ouzo and at $30 a fifth it got the axe.) The veggie stew part was good and the chicken was juicy but with crispy skin, yummy!! The part that really made everything pop was the rouille, the spicy, savory sauce you drizzle over the whole dish. I will definitely be making it again. Maybe next time I will try halibut, slightly more traditional for bouillabaisse!

Coke

We had to go to the Coke factory on the strip and try the funny sodas. Out of 16 small tastes, we found one or two that didn't make us say ICK! None of them were really good, but it was fun!



EDIT: I didn't add much detail...one soda tasted just like fizzy mouthwash, one like chicken bullion, sweet with a hint of banana, coconut, one just really sweet, but the worst of all was one that tasted like crushed aspirin! I don't know how true all of this is, but the Coke people claim these are the top selling sodas from their respective countries...I think I will stick to water. I also feel like I should identify our travel companions for my other family. We went to Vegas with my cousin (on Mom's side) Jessie and her guy Justin from Australia. They had been to Las Vegas on their last trip to see us in AK two years ago. But this was our first visit and our first vacation without kids.

Vegas teaser

Because this is a foodie blog, I had to tease you with one good food pic from our trip to Las Vegas. For Justin's birthday, we went to a Dim Sum restaurant for breakfast. It was a new (and fun!) experience for us! We had lots of interesting things, but nothing could beat the jellyfish salad.

I thought it was pretty good. It had a spicy dressing and reminded me of rice noodles. Kyle couldn't get over the fact it was a chopped up jellyfish! We had lots of other yummy choices though. Dumplings, steam buns, pot stickers, sauteed veggies and shrimp fritters to name a few!

Heres my story

This is what has been happening around here:



Too much fun!! Sorry no good posts, we have been on the go for weeks now. The bacon got smoked and packaged, the kraut got canned, mustard was made. We have had pizza, BBQ and lots of great parties. Jessie and Justin leave tomorrow and we will be going with them to Las Vegas for 5 days. Life should slow down a little when we get home.